After entering the Philippine e-taxi booking market last year with major operations in Metro Manila, Easy Taxi, the world’s largest taxi booking app, is now launching full-scale operations in Metro Cebu.

“While Easy Taxi has begun penetrating Cebu earlier this year we are now shifting our gears full blast for aggressive expansion in the Queen City of the South,” said Daniel Torres, Easy Taxi CEO for the Philippines.

Easy Taxi’s formal launching for its operations in Cebu was held on September 18, Thursday, with a ribbon cutting ceremony at the Ayala Center Cebu Level 1 Expansion Bldg.

Unveiled here is an exclusive partnership by Easy Taxi with Ayala Center Cebu marked by the opening of an e-taxi booking service concierge booth located at the mall’s Level 1 Expansion Bldg.

According to Torres, taxi passengers can conveniently book taxi cabs electronically through the Easy Taxi booking service concierge booth in Ayala Center Cebu for free.

An attendant in the concierge will arrange a passenger’s taxi ride using the Easy Taxi Pro app which is provided for Easy Taxi institutional partners and establishments.

The Easy Taxi booking concierge is free of charge until October 4, after which a P30 fee will be collected from patrons availing of the booth’s services

“We put a premium on safety, reliability, and convenience hence we are going out of our way to bring the one of a kind e-taxi booking concierge in Ayala Center Cebu,” said Torres.

Along this line, Easy Taxi also revealed a partnership with the Land Transportation Franchise Regulatory Board (LTFRB) for the government agency’s advocacy for women passengers’ safety.

LTFRB Regional Director Ahmed Cuizon said there is a need to keep women safe especially those riding taxicabs alone. “We are happy Easy Taxi is helping us in this advocacy.”

“All this is Easy Taxi’s way of helping raise the standards of the taxi riding and general public transportation experience of commuters in the sprawling urban Metro Cebu,” said Torres.

He said that Easy Taxi is stepping up its efforts to tap and educate more taxi drivers in the province to become at par with their counterparts around the globe.

To ensure world-class customer service, particularly in terms of ensuring passenger safety, Easy Taxi has tapped some of the most trusted local taxi fleet operators in Cebu.

Some of the taxi operators that Easy Taxi has partnered with to give the best advantage for Cebuano taxi users include Sun Taxi, Juscar, Saregen, Catz, Worldwide, Emersons, to name just a few.

Since its founding in Brazil in 2011, Easy Taxi has gained prominence as the leading e-taxi hailing app in the world with more than 15 million downloads globally.

The company has a growing network of more than 300,000 registered taxi cab drivers from 170 cities in 34 countries in 4 continents.

The Easy Taxi app, which can be downloaded via Google Play or Apple App stores in mobiles and gadgets at no cost, enables users to live track a cab’s whereabouts and access important boarding information like the driver’s name, license plate, and contact details.

An Easy Taxi ‘zero booking free’ promo has been running for taxi cab passengers in Metro Cebu and Manila since August up to October 4, 2014.

With the promo, taxi passengers can avail of Easy Taxi’s online booking application for free, a big discount from its regular P70 fee which users pay on top of the metered bill.

Easy Taxi is funded by Berlin-based startup incubator and venture capital investment firm Rocket Internet. It recently raised $40 million from investors Phenomen Ventures and Tengelmann Ventures, which the company hopes to help expansion in emerging markets in Asia and Africa.

Easy Taxi & Waze to promote ‘social’ and responsible driving

Easy Taxi & Waze have announced a partnership aiming at facilitating mobility and responsible driving. The campaign, which starts initially in the Philippines, Singapore, and Brazil, has common objectives of raising the awareness about the most important problems related to city transportation.

Easy Taxi Cebu Official Launch

Following the theme of “Don’t drink and drive”, the campaign targets one of the growing social problems in the Philippines and comes just two months after the new strict law, prohibiting driving under the influence, was introduced by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC}. To additionally motivate the passengers to take a safe taxi instead of driving under risky conditions, Easy Taxi introduced a zero booking fee to accompany the campaign. Waze instead, wants to assure all users are familiar about the “Share Drive” functionality, which allows users to send a direct message or email to inform their friends and family about the arrival and eventual lateness. While all Easy-Taxi drivers are verified and tracked in real time, sharing the ride with family or friends introduces additional layer of safety, which is within the best intention of both partners. In case of any potential delay noticed with Waze’s “Share Drive”, worried parents or friends, can further request information from Easy Taxi about taxi location and driver details.

“We have a !ot in common with Waze, but most importantly we share a mission of reducing the traffic and increasing safety of the transportation industry. The partnership will help us assure an uprecedented quality of the passenger service to the roads of Manila and Cebu. With the help of SMART Communications we already enabled drivers to use Waze and Easy Taxi with no barriers through zero data plans. It’s now time to bring full synergies to the table”, said Mario Berta, Easy Taxi’s Regional Managing Director.

Safety is the utmost priority for Waze. Waze was the first navigation app to block drivers from texting and driving. The entire navigation experience, even reporting an accident, can be done by voice command. Additionally, Waze warns you about accidents and hazards on the road, thereby keeping drivers out of the most dangerous segments of road. Similarly, our partnership with Easy Taxi allows us to continue to strive for safety. By working with Easy Taxi, we’re able to offer our users the safest way to get home, while under the influence, and still enjoy the benefits of Waze since their drivers use Waze, too”, said Julie Mossier, Waze Sr. Director of Corn munications.

The social responsibility campaign between Waze and Easy Taxi could become a beginning of cooperation on a bigger scale between both tech giants. Onboarding Easy Taxi on Waze app could allow the latter to use it to recruit more drivers. Easy Taxi’s CMO, Paul Malicki, sees it as a big step in company’s efforts to expand user acquisition to new channels.

“Waze is possibly the most complimentary product to Easy Taxi due to its embedded ability to help taxi drivers challenge the traffic, while it also reaches heavy commuters in the world’s biggest metropolis. Today we run marketing on more than dozen different marketing platforms but with Waze for the first time we will be able to target passengers and drivers with unusual efficiency. We saw a very positive feedback from the drivers after adding Waze deeplink into the Easy Taxi app. There are so many possibilities to work together and we are looking forward to explore them.”

About Easy Taxi

Easy Taxi is the world’s biggest taxi booking app, currently available across 165 cities in over 32 countries around the world. Founded in Brazil in 2011, the company started expansion in Asia in 2013.

About Asia Pacific Internet Group

The Asia Pacific Internet Group (APIG) supports some of the leading internet companies in the region. Founded by Rocket Internet in 2014, the APIG’s mission is to promote innovation and entrepreneurship throughout Asia and the Pacific, as well as to support the deve!opment of a vibrant online culture. APIG’s network currently consists of 10 companies, operating in 15 countries.

About Waze

Waze is one of the world’s largest community-based traffic and navigation app.

Waze is the social navigation pioneer, leveraging mobile technology and a passionate global community to redefine expectations of today’s maps. Waze is home to one of the world’s largest networks of drivers who work together daily to outsmart traffic and save time and money. The app consistently recommends the fastest routes based on real-time driving and data from millions of users. From traffic reroutes to low gas price alerts and relevant offers from favorite brands, Waze is one of the most comprehensive driving companions in the marketplace. To download the free Waze app for iOS or Android, visit http://www.waze.com.